Dave Dombrowski addresses the Red Sox' silent offseason

Wednesday

Feb 14, 2018 at 7:06 PMFeb 14, 2018 at 7:08 PM

Dave Dombrowski said Wednesday that returning with the exact same position player core “wasn’t per se our plan.” He outlined the need for a power hitter the day after the Red Sox lost to the Astros last October; he hasn’t added one, even with a plethora still available to the highest bidder.

By Tim Britton / @TimBritton

FORT MYERS, Fla. — It’s safe to say that Dave Dombrowski has been around baseball for a while.

He has been the general manager of one team that changed names and another that changed cities. He worked with Tony LaRussa — in Chicago. He has operated a payroll as low as $12 million and handed out a contract extension worth nearly a quarter-billion dollars.

We are not here to make a bunch of “Dave Dombrowski so old” jokes, but rather to say that the man has seen some things in this game.

He has never seen a spring like this.

“It’s a whole different spring this year than it’s ever been before,” Dombrowski said at JetBlue Park on Wednesday as Boston’s pitchers and catchers reported 90 minutes south of a free-agent spring training in Bradenton. “There’s a lot to be done for people. There’s a lot of other things that [will] take place based upon really what has not been done this wintertime.”

Indeed, baseball’s offseason is so popular it has decided to extend itself into the preseason. Close to 100 free agents remain available on the open market, including several who would immediately make the Red Sox a better team. It’s weird that that has remained the case even as Boston has acknowledged its truth.

Dombrowski said Wednesday that returning with the exact same position player core “wasn’t per se our plan.” He outlined the need for a power hitter the day after the Sox lost to the Astros last October; he hasn’t added one, even with a plethora still available to the highest bidder.

That’s unusual for most teams, but especially for those helmed by Dombrowski. In his first two winters with the Sox, Dombrowski identified areas to upgrade and did so promptly. He didn’t add a major-league piece to the roster after the second week of December in either year.

This time around, he’s added only one major-league player all winter — the re-signed Mitch Moreland.

“I think every team in baseball right now can still get better,” David Price said Tuesday. “Ever since I’ve been a part of one of Dave’s organizations, we’re always looking for ways to get better.”

J.D. Martinez would provide the Sox with the middle-of-the-order thump they lacked last season. Eduardo Nuñez would give them a versatile bat to fill in for the injured Dustin Pedroia. Tony Watson could be a lefty reliever capable of getting all hitters out.

Those are just the free agents. Dombrowski said the trade market is more active now than it’s ever been at this time of the year during his long career. Just on Tuesday night, walking out of the park at the end of the day for dinner, he was inundated with phone calls for potential moves.

The likelihood remains that Dombrowski and the Red Sox will do something. They’re still considered the favorites for Martinez, and signing the slugger would render their offseason a success. Even as he’s expressed confidence in the current group of Red Sox, Dombrowski dropped hints that improvement is eventually on the way.

“We still have two weeks before we start playing games and a month after that [of spring training], so we’re a long way from the season,” he said. “And just because you start a season a certain way doesn’t mean that’s how your club finishes.”

To that end, Dombrowski didn’t say the team has a date in mind after which it would feel uncomfortable adding to the current roster. At the moment, he’s not interested in dropping an ultimatum on, say, Martinez.

“I would ideally love to have everybody here today,” he said. “But I don’t have unilateral control of that. I just think you have to keep taking a pulse of what’s taking place and to continually analyze what’s going on. This is just unique in that sense.”

It also offers a unique opportunity for improvement this time of year. Perhaps no team has more to gain in the next few weeks than Boston. That also means the Sox have a lot to lose.

“I do not know if we’re close to doing anything or not,” Dombrowski said Wednesday. “I don’t think it’s really changed a great deal. We continue to have conversations with a lot of clubs and agents. We’ll see what happens.”

Tim Britton writes for the Providence Journal of GateHouse Media.

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